Out of the frying pan: a young pulsar with a long radio trail emerging from SNR G315.9-0.0

The faint radio supernova remnant SNR G315.9-0.0 is notable for a long and thin trail that extends outward perpendicular from the edge of its approximately circular shell. In a search with the Parkes telescope, we have found a young and energetic pulsar that is located at the tip of this collimated linear structure. PSR J1437-5959 has period P = 61 ms, characteristic age tau(c) = P/(2(P) over dot) = 114 kyr, and spin-down luminosity (E) over dot = 1.4 x 10(36) erg s(-1). It is very faint, with a flux density at 1.4 GHz of about 75 mu Jy. From its dispersion measure of 549 pc cm(-3), we infer d approximate to 8 kpc. At this distance and for an age comparable to tc, the implied pulsar velocity in the plane of the sky is V-t = 300 km s(-1) for a birth at the center of the SNR, although it is possible that the SNR/pulsar system is younger than tc and that V-t > 300 km s(-1). The highly collimated linear feature is evidently the pulsar wind trail left from the supersonic passage of PSR J1437-5959 through the interstellar medium surrounding SNR G315.9-0.0.